94 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



On the second day Col. Alex. H. Pearsou, President of the New Jersey State 

 Horticultural Society, talked on " Experiments in Viticulture." This was an 

 unusually instructive paper. The Colonel gave his forty years' experience with 

 the grape, and summed up the experiments made during the last two centuries. 

 He favors planting vines in a hole made four feet deep and four feet square, 

 filling up the same from time to time as the new growth permits. The object 

 of this deep planting is to overcome the severe drouths they are subject to in 

 the deep, sandy soil of New Jersey. For pruuing and training the vine he 

 recommends two short pieces of new wood trained as arms on a wire, raised 

 two feet from the ground. 



The grape rot can be prevented, he claimed, by spreading a sheet over the 

 vine, of about two feet wide. Paper bags, he savs, will also prevent the rot if 

 put on in time. He put on 100,000 of these in one season. But both of these 

 remedies he finds too expensive for vineyard purposes, and looks for cheaper 

 remedies. It was said that grapes which had been bagged, sold for one cent 

 more per pound, on account of superior flavor and appearance. 



Mr. Lyman, President of -the Virginia State Grape Growers' Association, 

 also read a very interesting paper on the grape, at the same session. Both 

 papers were thoroughly discussed. It was maintained that different sections 

 and soils develop varieties of grapes peculiarly adapted to its own, and that it 

 is fallacy to plant the same variety and expect success on all soils and different 

 sections. It was even claimed by some that boundary lines have divided varie- 

 ties, or, in other words, the vineyard on each side did not produce the same 

 grape with equal success. The celebrated vineyard of the Johannesburg, in 

 Germany, was cited as an instance of this fact. It will be thus seen that the 

 many new varieties of grapes now being originated in the different parts of 

 our country, and introduced for dissemination, can not be relied upon to suc- 

 ceed equally as well in other sections than they were originated. Past experi- 

 ence has abundantly proved this, and to the sad and expensive experience of 

 many. 



On the third day there were papers and discussions, prominent among which 

 was one by the Hon. Samuel Miller of Missouri, the veteran grape grower, on 

 ■" How to Bring New Varieties of Grapes Early into Bearing," so as to test 

 their merits in the shortest possible time. Grafting on to small pieces of roots, 

 the size of a lead pencil, and starting over bottom heat, was one method recom- 

 mended This method I tried myself as much as 25 years ago, and with 

 marked success. Another way was to graft on to bearing vines, when grafts 

 can be secured large enough. By this way fruit can often be secured in the 

 second year. This subject brought out an exhaustive discussion on grafting 

 the grape and changing the entire vineyard to another variety. In California 

 they often graft 100 acres in one season. Fully 90 per cent, of the grafts 

 grow. They graft on the old Mission grape, stocks often very nearly four 

 inches in diameter at the surface of the ground. In such cases, where the 

 stock is so thick, a piece is taken out of the stem, and the cion fitted to it, and, 

 thus from four to six grafts are often put in one stock. This course is con- 

 sidered necessary in order to balance the root growth more fully. Small 

 stocks, however, are split, and when very light a strong string is put around to 

 hold the cion. The operation is done a few inches below the surface, and 

 afterward filled in so as to cover the graft up to the upper bud. Waxing or 

 any other cover is not deemed necessary, where the cut can be thoroughly cov- 

 ered with earth. Mr. Caywood, of New York, winds moss around the graft, 



